Bat - Mythology

Mythology

In European cultures, bats have long been associated with witchcraft, black magic and darkness. The witches incorporate bat in their brew in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Because bats are mammals, yet can fly, this gives them status as liminal beings in many cultural traditions.

The bat is sacred in Tonga and is often considered the physical manifestation of a separable soul. Bats are closely associated with vampires, who are said to be able to shapeshift into bats, fog, or wolves. Bats are also symbols of ghosts, death, and disease. Among some Native Americans, such as the Creek, Cherokee and Apache, the bat is a trickster spirit.

Chinese lore claims the bat is a symbol of longevity and happiness, and is similarly lucky in Poland and geographical Macedonia and among the Kwakiutl and Arabs.

Pre-Columbian cultures associated animals with gods, and often displayed them in art. The Moche people depicted bats in their ceramics.

In Western culture, the bat is often a symbol of the night and its foreboding nature. The bat is a primary animal associated with fictional characters of the night, both villains, such as Dracula, and heroes, such as Batman. The association of the fear of the night with the animal was treated as a literary challenge by Kenneth Oppel, who created a best-selling series of novels, beginning with Silverwing, which feature bats as the central heroic figures much as anthropomorphized rabbits were the central figures to the classic novel Watership Down.

An old wives' tale has it that bats will entangle themselves in people's hair. One likely source of this belief is that insect-eating bats seeking prey may dive erratically toward people, who attract mosquitoes and gnats, leading the squeamish to believe the bats are trying to get in their hair.